The Union Daily, Vol. 3

I really hope you guys are enjoying these as much as we here enjoy putting them out. We are just a few days away from a legit name other than “The Union Daily,” so continue to send your submissions. Again, the reader with the best name will win our fabulous prize pack. Right now, “The Daily Doop” has slightly surpassed “The Whole Doop,” but there’s still time to trump both.

Anyway, on to the good stuff…

It’s a slow news day around here with the game tonight in Chicago. The Union are the opponents for the Fire on a night in which the club with honor some of its past greats, during its 15-year anniversary celebration. Which, if you ask me sort of makes it feel I’m back in high school and we are the team that another team schedules just so they can trounce them on homecoming night and send the fans home tickled pink.

I’m not happy about it, but c’est la vie, I suppose.

Speaking with a few of our boys in blue before this trip and the mindset is less about spoiling Chicago’s night, but putting a dent in their playoff plans.

A win for the Fire (16-9-5, 53 points) secures a trip to the MLS Cup playoffs, their first since 2009. Adding further insult to injury would also make this a season sweep for Chicago against the Union – which unless my memory is off makes the Fire the only Eastern Conference team (that the Union have played more than once this year) to date to do so.

It’s something Brian Carroll doesn’t want to see happen as the midfielder expressed as much before jetsetting to the Windy City yesterday. Union midfielder Jimmy McLaughlin who didn’t make the trip called the Fire match “a big game that will again test how we respond to pressure situations.” McLaughlin said as much as a guest Tuesday night on “The 90th Minute,” SportsRadio 610 WIP’s weekly soccer show. It was a content filled show last night, listen to the podcast here.

Moving on…

The team did a bit of sightseeing to stretch their legs after an 8:30 a.m. light walkthrough this morning and though I can’t really get into detail about what the Union formation and lineup look like, all I am going to say is that the personnel I'm hearing that will make the lineup tonight should make this one very interesting match. What was also interesting was Michael Lahoud walking around town with his warm ups on backwards. Whether it was by accident or a case of wanting to be “Totally Krossed Out,” goalkeeper Chris Konopkaposted a picture of Mr. Lahoud on his Twitter account. From, what we are hearing the weather in Chi-town hasn’t been the best, but it appears the guys are making the most of it. Speaking of Lahoud, he wrote a blog post recently of top jams on locker room playlists of the entire team.

Some of the songs corresponding to certain players may surprise you. It's also a pretty good read from Mr. Lahoud.

Back at Union HQ…

Our staff is abuzz over tonight’s kickoff of "The U thank U" month long campaign. It kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. at Kildare’s in Manayunk (4417 Main St.) with a viewing party hosted by CEO and operating partner Nick Sakiewicz. Wear Union gear and it’ll get you 10 percent off food for the night and a complimentary drink on us. For all of you out there with burning questions for Sakiewicz, I can’t think of a better way to convey them.

And before I leave you…

We had a special guest roaming our offices today. Heather Mitts took a tour of the place and met our staff. Not sure why she was here exactly, but it was a nice break in the day, if you know what I mean. Mitts told philadelphiaunion.com she is heavily considering a permanent move to Philly, a place where she spent three seasons as a member of the defunct Philadelphia Charge of the defunct WUSA women's league...Also notice that not a single Union player made the Top 20 of the latest MLS Castrol rankings, but former Union captain Danny Califf delivered some quotable gems in this report posted today on MLSSoccer.com

See you tomorrow, hopefully with a full rundown on the win in Chicago.